France Fines 13 Firms $1.2 Bln for Price-Fixing

France's antitrust authority has slapped penalties totaling some 950 million euros ($1.2 billion) against 13 consumer-goods makers for illegally colluding on prices for hygiene and cleaning products including shampoos, toothpaste and detergents.

The authority says the penalties are among its largest, and the wrongdoing involved, among others, U.S.-based Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, and Sara Lee, Anglo-Dutch firm Unilever and Britain's Reckitt Benckiser.